Darkthrone Releasing "Black Death And Beyond" Box Set

On May 12th, Peaceville Records will release "Black Death and Beyond," a special collector’s box-set featuring an in-depth book containing extensive accounts of Darkthrone's history & philosophy from both Gylve ‘Fenris’ Nagell & Ted ‘Nocturno Culto’ Skjellum, as well as additional recollections from bass player Dag Nilsen.

“I never quit my day job; one of the reasons being that I can listen to music on headphones there all the time. To the extent that I rarely listen to music at home anymore, and if I do it's like I can't hear it PROPERLY. At work with headphones is where the details reveal themselves and also which songs I can and can't use in compilations or dj'ing appear quite clearly.

"Every time I get/buy a cassette or vinyl I have to transfer them to wav files via a computer programme, then I write a little note to accompany the final burnt disc. But the note first swings by my workplace where I can rate the various songs with a clever underlining-system called THE FENRIZOLATOR. And so passes the days.

"Then came the idea to do a Darkthrone book and with it a vast box set. There was talk about 3 compilation discs, one with Death, one with Black and one with our other styles. So be it. But this time I took it upon myself do it PROPERLY. And to do that....well, I had to face my own rating system. Because I also use the F-OLATOR on regular CD's, it took 3 whole days to rate all of our 16 full length albums. Certain discoveries were made, like the song I think is worst by Darkthrone is HANS SISTE VINTER (Scoring only 12 out of 60 points) and also that The Cult Is Alive is probably our best album – at least it's the one with the highest grades consistently.

"But I digress. AGGRESSIVE DIGRESSOR!!! Lists were made, and I truly tried to be as honest and fair as possible, Ted was initially going to do this but I think he suddenly saw how monumental a task it would be, and ended up with - well, what you hold in your hands right now. My 'BEST OF' trying to follow both my biased ratings, crystal logic and also personal favours and my fave Ted songs."